Myles Rowe exclusive: Chasing an Indy 500 dream & making Indy NXT history

Credit: James Black

After putting the IndyCar paddock on notice with a record-breaking, last-to-first Indy NXT victory at World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR), Myles Rowe is aiming high.

The Abel Motorsports driver was disqualified from qualifying at WWTR after running an additional lap due to communication issues, confining him to a last-place start in 24th. But in the ensuing 75-lap race, the 25-year-old surged to the race lead before two-thirds distance, confirming a win from the furthest-back starting position in the championship’s history.

The nature of the performance has raised plenty of discussion about securing the third-year NXT driver a debut Indianapolis 500 ride next year. A long-standing goal of Rowe’s, he is, indeed, actively - and creatively - pursuing opportunities to compete in the famed race.

“That’s all I focus on every day, is about the 500 campaign,” he told DIVEBOMB, speaking on the Indy NXT Debrief podcast. “There’s a couple of different things I’m doing. Outreach is a big thing for me right now. I’m also a founder, I’m an entrepreneur.

“I have this company and [am] trying to use that as leverage toward to get to the 500 because it’s a tech company that has a lot of relation to competition. I wouldn’t say motorsport but it’s a company that basically emphasises competitive infrastructure. 

“So using that as an extra piece of leverage and extra asset that goes along with just being skilled in motorsport and breaking records in motorsport. Besides the natural sim work and fitness, my whole mindset right now is just on outreach because that’s what I need. 

“I need funding to get there [to IndyCar] and stay there. So that’s what I’m working on every day.”

Credit: Titus Slaughter

Rowe’s emphatic success at WWTR - better known as Gateway - was the third victory of his NXT career. After wins at Iowa Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway last year, it continues the record of all of his victories in the series coming on ovals, which should only bolster his chances of landing a first Indy 500 drive, if not a full-time IndyCar seat.

And he certainly realises that such a display as on the 1.25-mile Gateway oval, having broken into the top 10 from the rear by only Lap 20 before taking the lead from Andretti Global’s Josh Pierson on Lap 47, is one to catch the eye of the wider IndyCar world.

“Everything, I knew I can do,” he insisted. “It definitely is a certain result that the other people in the paddock cannot deny. There’s performance here. Looking back, it’ll be something I’m just very grateful for, something I’m very happy that I was able to do.

“I think we all agree it was a very beautiful race. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. And just to have the paddock feel that way entirely is something I feel like maybe not everyone gets. Very grateful for it.”

Rowe is not unaccustomed to the limelight. After becoming the first Black driver to win in Indy NXT in Iowa last July, he gained public endorsement from seven-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton - and not for the first time.

After this latest win - a spectacular one, at that - Rowe was particularly touched by being voted ‘Driver of the Week’ by fans of Will Buxton and Kevin Harvick’s SPEED on FOX show. Reflected in their regular picks, the audience tends to be more NASCAR-oriented, which undoubtedly emphasises Rowe’s creeping into the wider motorsport consciousness. 

“[That] was the highlight, no doubt,” Rowe raised, unprompted. “Being against heavyweights like [F1’s Kimi] Antonelli, [MotoGP’s Marc] Márquez and [NASCAR’s Denny] Hamlin is something that will really put a smile on your face.”

Credit: James Black

His adulation-raising drive through the field was no coincidence. In large part, it was fuelled by an unwavering self-belief. But immediately after the disappointment of qualifying, where he had set a two-lap run good enough for the front row before unintentionally flouting the stated procedures, there was meticulous revised preparation for the race.

As part of this, Rowe requested two printed track maps from his team. On them, he sketched his idea of the regular racing line through the corners, then two unique, more adventurous lines to represent how he would approach cutting through the field. 

From that, he was able to visualise how exactly to control and manipulate his steering arc to open up the entire field’s worth of passes required to get to the front.

“That was the key that really did everything for that race - and it worked,” he explained. “I can’t say I didn’t overthink it. When the DQ happened, all the way until [getting back] in the car, there’s different scenarios running through my head constantly. 

“And this happens in any given situation, any race weekend. But naturally, the frequency of what I was thinking could happen [increased], knowing how drastic the change could be, whether it was a successful change or equally negative change.

“So really, I have this system of manifesting your own success and seeing that through in your imagination, your mind. Even if it was some overthinking and maybe I thought about it too much, at least it’s trying to manifest the positive out of it. And that was the key.”

Even when faced with the challenge of beginning the race from the back row, Rowe’s typical confidence in his own ability, as well as the team’s faith in him for race day, never faltered. 

Credit: Joe Skibinski

“You really had to have a lot of mental fortitude to get through the hours after [qualifying],” Rowe admitted. “The team, their reaction was so positive and they had all this confidence that I was going to be able to change the script in the race. There was no negativity.

“I don’t want to sound cocky, but I remember telling my dad before I even left to go to the hotel that night [after qualifying] that I was going to still win the race. It did not matter what position I started in; I was still going to finish [first]. So that was my mindset and my whole honest thought processes and my system for enabling that.

“I really did truly believe I was going to win that race, even after the qualifying.”

With his charge from 24th, albeit with two cars ahead not taking the start due to mechanical gremlins, Rowe toppled the previous record for the series’ greatest winning comeback drive, which was set by Esteban Guerrieri winning from 18th place in the 2012 Freedom 100.

Always striving for the next big thing, active sportspeople tend to have complicated relationships with such records. But Rowe still appreciates the talk of a historic drive.

“It’s huge for me,” he said. “You try honestly not to think about it too much and just let [records] acclimate, but they definitely are something that are extremely special and something that, define your career and define who you are, to a certain extent. Because it’s an accumulation of all the hard work you put in in the time that you have here on this earth.

Credit: James Black

“When the career is still active, [you] try not to get overly attentive to it because there is more and more and more to do constantly. We’re always focused forward. You’re always focused on the next corner. That previous corner, we can analyse but the throttle is already pinned down and we’re headed to the next thing. That’s my relationship with it.”

Even without the back-to-front context, Rowe’s Gateway win is a notable marker of a return to form after a subpar start to the season for the Abel team. Tipped to be in the championship fight, only one top-five result - and finishes of 23rd and 24th - in the opening six rounds of the season left him 112 points adrift of the standings lead in ninth.

In Round 7 in Detroit, capitalising on first-corner chaos enabled a recovery from 11th to second and a first podium of the season for Rowe. But reasserting his dominance on ovals served as a greater statement that he should not be counted out of this year’s running.

“Being where I belong on the top spot again, regardless of the positions gained and everything,” he asserted, “it was just a good sense of calm, of feeling at home.”

Across the past two rounds, Rowe has climbed to fifth in the standings and cut to within 73 points of the championship lead. Cape Motorsports powered by Ed Carpenter Racing’s Nikita Johnson currently leads the way, followed by HMD Motorsports duo Enzo Fittipaldi and Tymek Kucharczyk within five points, with Andretti’s Max Taylor 27 points back.

The 17-round season will pass the halfway mark at Road America this coming weekend, with a road-course doubleheader set to be telling for Rowe and the Abel team as to whether their Detroit display has truly allayed concerns over their road-and-street shortcomings.

Credit: James Black

“It’s definitely great to have a good race like [Gateway] and even Detroit,” Rowe concluded. “But we still don’t come out the box strong on road and street. It’s nice to have that authority, you could say, as being P1 on team, but it’s not enough for the championship. 

“We need to come out the box a lot stronger on these road and street courses if we really want to have a chance. We’re working on that day and night. Why the Detroit race was successful is because I think we found something overnight with something in the system with the car that we’ve been trying to fix for a long time. Hoping to see that translate.”

And should it translate, Rowe - already a champion on the IndyCar ladder in USF Pro 2000 in 2023 - will be very the last person to write himself off.

“Obviously we have the skill on the ovals; we have the technique on road and street in terms of driving skill. With all the team members, it’s just about getting everything cohesive and not having these hiccups at the start of the weekend so we have a lot more of a chance.”